"The governments position was, and still is that the U.S. Copyright Acts first-sale doctrine does not apply to goods produced and copyrighted overseas and imported to the United States  period. Costco had told the Supreme Court that the decision effectively urges U.S.-based manufacturers to flee the United States (.pdf) to acquire complete control over distribution of their goods in the American market, arguments now being made in the latest case."

Now take, for example, a hypothetical HP-branded laptop made in China or Taiwan, filled with bloatware, whose copyright is 'owned' by a non-US company - perhaps a HP foreign 'partner' or perhaps even HP's own Irish (not picking on the Irish) subsidiary. You decide to remove the bloatware and HP has an 'alarm' system which phones home and tells HP that you've removed something that provides HP with additional revenue (ie. selling your page views or whatever to a 3rd party). HP sues you for lost revenue and damages - or more likely just sends you an extortionate "copyright troll" letter offering to 'settle' out-of-court for $10,000.